Appraisal Of Social Responsibility On Corporate Organization

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Towards the end of 1800’s to the early 1990’s the mission of business
firms was exclusively economic. During this period, the cardinal purpose of
business owners is to make as much profit as possible. To underscore the
above assertion, Milton Friedman (1972:88) had contended that the only
responsibility of the business is to make as much profit as it can for the
owners. Today, partly due to the interdependencies of many groups in our
society, the values, goals and attitudes of the society changed significantly.
This accounts for the complexity in the society in the area of social,
economic as well as environmental problems which have been experienced.
This situation is in consonance with the view of Ackerman (1973:89), when
he opined that the people increased awareness has brought some expectation
and demand to bear on companies to be socially responsible to the society in
which they operate. Thus we often talk about the social responsibility and
social responsiveness of all organizations although the focus of this study
shall be on corporate organizations. There is a question as to what the social
responsibility of business really means.
The concept of social responsibility is not new, although the idea was
already considered in the early part of the twentieth century. The modern
discussions of social responsibility got a major impetus with the book
“social responsibility of business men” by Howard .R. Bowen, who
suggested that business actors should consider the social implications of
their decisions, society being awakened with respect to the urgency of social
problems is asking managers and owners of business what they are doing to
discharge their social responsibility to the society in which they operate
given negative social impacts of their business on the society such as
pollutions of all kinds air, water, solid waste noise to mention but a few.
The concept of social responsibility refers to the firm’s consideration
of and responses to the issues beyond narrow economic, technical and legal
requirement of the firm. It is the firm’s obligation to evaluate in its decision
making process the effects of its decision on the external social system in a
manner that should accomplish social benefits along with the traditional
economic gains which the firm seeks for. However, Harper D. (1976) a
classical economist consistently argued against the need to do anything that
negates profit maximization. He sees business social responsibility as an
aberration Harper, (1976).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
Oil spillage in some of the oil producing state is alarming and some
pollution caused by industries in our country is on the high rate. The
problems of the communities where the oil companies operate bring these
problems constructively to the attention of the companies with which they
have developed regular form for meetings. These companies have created
ecological disaster, gas flowing in the communities. Therefore, the problem
to be looked into in this research is that a corporate organisation does not
bother about their social responsibility to the environment where they
operate. Furthermore, poverty, lack of essential facilities and unemployment
are increasing is alarming proportion. As a result the needs and expectation
of the society are not met by the business organisation.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The corporate organizations naturally have its own mix and different
emphasis. The overall objectives of every organisation are survival growth,
profit, economic contribution and social obligation. It is known fact that
firms in Nigeria usually lay more emphasis on profit maximization. The
objective of this research work includes the following:
i. To examine the general attitude of ANAMMCO towards social
responsibility.
ii. To examine the consequences of the company ignoring its social
responsibilities.
iii. To evaluate the problems which hinder the performance of social
responsibility practice by ANAMMCO.
iv. To recommend possible solutions for the identified problems.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To ensure an in-depth research work with a view to providing best
solutions to problems identified, the study will make us of the following four
(4) research questions:
i. Could business organisation carryout a successful social
responsibility practice?
ii. Should social responsibility be legalized?
iii. In what form should social responsibility be performed?
iv. Where should funds for carrying out these social responsibility
programmes come from?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Based on the four research questions already mentioned, the following
hypotheses were formulated:
HYPOTHESES 1
Ho: Business organizations can not carryout a successful social
responsibility practice.
Hi: Business organizations can significantly carry out a successful social
responsibility practice.
HYPOTHESES II
Ho: Business social responsibility should not be legalized.
Hi: Business social responsibility practices should be significantly
legalized.
HYPOTHESES III
Ho: Social responsibility practices cannot be achieved in any form.
Hi: Social responsibility practice can reasonably be achieved in different
form.
HYPOTHESES IV
Ho: There is no place to source funds for carrying out social responsibility
practice.
Hi: There are sources of fund, for financing social responsibility practice.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of the study cannot be over-emphasized given the
interdependencies of many groups in our society. The study is therefore
important because, it will not only examine the attitude of business
organisation towards the issue of social responsibility but will go a long way
to help these organisation on policy making decision in order to eliminate
the negative effects and consequences of these attitudes in the discharge of
social responsibility practices. The study will be of immense benefit to
researchers and students looking for more information on this topic.
Another significance of this research is that, it will help in finding
ways to improve relationship between the company and the town in which it
operates. It enables manager of different organizations to know actually
what social responsibility is all about and it will also help them to know the
difference between social problem and economic performance. The study
will equally be beneficial to private and public sector organizations.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
The study, as earlier specified, aims at appraising the social
responsibility practice by corporate organizations in Enugu using Anambra
Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO) as case study. The study is
therefore restricted to the study of the ANAMMCO as a corporate
organization in Emene, Enugu.
It is, however, expected that the study of ANAMMCO, Emene, Enugu
would give enough information on how business social responsibility can
successfully be rendered by other categories of business firms

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In the course of carrying out this research work, some difficulties
were encountered. The constraints were however managed; among these
were time, materials and financial constraints.
TIME:
Time factor was one of the constraints faced by the researcher;
however, the researcher took time management seriously, as the study was
successful. So many useful times was involved to make the study as the
researcher had to combine full time employment with the collection of data
for the work.

MATERIALS:
It is not easy for the materials to be collected or obtained due to
limited books, journals and other reference materials, particularly obtaining
information from the case organization was a tedious exercise, as some
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information was termed “vital confidential, or classified” and are out of
reach despite the purpose and intentions to which they were requested for,
though some management staff and senior supervisors were very helpful as
they assisted in providing necessary data that formed the basis for this
project write-up, conclusion and recommendations.

FINANCE:
Financial problem was also encountered by the researcher in the
course of the work. This constraint informed the study of only one corporate
organization. Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO).
Notwithstanding the above constraints, the quality of the research work
could not be impaired.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERM
ANAMMCO: Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company